Top Philosophy of Physics programs, 2024-25

Full results will be on the PGR website (i.e., all programs with a rounded mean of 3.0 or higher will be listed).  The list of evaluators for this specialty is below the fold.  Programs are ranked by their rounded mean score; also listed are the median and mode.  When the median or mode is very different from the rounded mean that is indicative of some notable differences of opinion among evaluators.

Philosophy of Physics	Rounded Mean	Median	Mode	Group	Group String
University of California, Irvine	5	5	5	Group 1	Group 1 (1-3) (rounded mean of 5)
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	5	5	5	Group 1	Group 1 (1-3) (rounded mean of 5)
University of Pittsburgh	5	5	5	Group 1	Group 1 (1-3) (rounded mean of 5)
Oxford University	4.5	5	5	Group 2	Group 2 (4-6) (rounded mean of 4.5)
University of California, San Diego	4.5	4	4	Group 2	Group 2 (4-6) (rounded mean of 4.5)
University of Western Ontario	4.5	5	4.5	Group 2	Group 2 (4-6) (rounded mean of 4.5)
Johns Hopkins University	4	4	4, 4.5	Group 3	Group 3 (7-12) (rounded mean of 4)
London School of Economics	4	4	4	Group 3	Group 3 (7-12) (rounded mean of 4)
New York University	4	5	3, 5	Group 3	Group 3 (7-12) (rounded mean of 4)
Princeton University	4	4	4	Group 3	Group 3 (7-12) (rounded mean of 4)
Rutgers University, New Brunswick	4	4	3	Group 3	Group 3 (7-12) (rounded mean of 4)
University of Bristol	4	4	4	Group 3	Group 3 (7-12) (rounded mean of 4)

Evaluators for philosophy of physics:  Sam Baron, Jeffrey Barrett, Thmas Barrett, Craig Callender, Eddy Chan, Neil Dewar, Stephan Hartmann, Jenann Ismael, Arnon Levy, Alyssa Ney, Jill North, John Norton, Chris Smeenk, David Wallace, James Weatherall, Eric Winsberg, Christian Wuthrich.

Note that evaluators could not evaluate either their own school or the school from which they received their Ph.D.

Philosophy of physics is an interesting sub-specialty becasue it is one with a high degree of consensus about excellence--in many specialties the "Group 1" programs have a rounded mean of only 4 or 4.5, whereas here there is strong consensus about which programs are "distinguished" (hence the rounded mean of 5).  Note that what characterizes the most  highly ranked programs is not only that they have at least one leading figure in the specialty but that they also have multiple faculty working in the area; by contrast the Group 3 programs (rounded mean of 4.0) have fewer faculty working in philosophy of physics, although they typically have at least one leading scholar in the area as well.